Nightmare
by Zie Ayton
Summary: Yugi's nights are plagued by the dark Malik he defeated back in Battle City. High-ish T for gore. Tier four YGOFFC fic. Crosshipping.


_**Nightmare**_

Yugi lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, begging not to be allowed to fall asleep tonight. He didn't want to fall into the terrifying dreamland that had been consuming him since he defeated Malik at Battle City. He glanced over at his clock. "One fifty-three…" he murmured. Just a few more hours before he had to get up and go to school. He could survive that long couldn't he? But even as he thought this, the weight of his eyelids pulled them shut. Yugi struggled desperately to open them, but images of horror already danced behind them, dragging him into the abyss of a nightmarish slumber.

He walked through the darkness, searching for the light he had never found. Behind him was a cackling, one he recognized well. He whipped around, squinting his eyes in an attempt to catch a glimpse of his perpetual attacker, but there was no light for his eyes to gather. The cackling came again, close to his left ear, startling him. He felt something cold and metallic scrape against his cheek, followed by the sickening sensation of something warm and fluid running down it. Yugi ran his fingers across his face, knowing well that he was smearing the blood. But it didn't matter, for nothing could see it here.

"I have been waiting, Pharaoh."

Yugi's muscles stiffened. It was right beside him, breathing into his neck. "The Pharaoh is gone, Malik. You're too late."

"Oh, it's _you_ again. Well. I suppose I will have to content myself with _playing_ until the Pharaoh returns to save you, won't I?" A hand caressed Yugi's chin and walked itself down his chest.

"He isn't coming back!" Yugi replied, trembling in fear. He could feel the nails of the hand dig into his abdomen. He struggled against this dark being's grip, knowing what was ahead for him.

The voice growled in his ear. "He _will_ come, and there is nothing you can do to stop me from waiting here until he does."

Again Yugi could feel the cold metallic object, this time pressed gently to his throat. It began to glow, illuminating the small part of the darkness that Yugi and his attacker inhabited. Yugi looked over and saw, as expected, the form of the dark Malik who had done so much harm in the place of Malik Ishtar. The dark Malik who the Pharaoh had supposedly banished in the final duel of Battle City. Clearly he had not done a particularly good job of it.

The dark Malik slipped his hands beneath the hem of Yugi's nightshirt and dug his nails deep into the boy's skin, drawing blood more easily than he would have in the realm of light. But here, in the darkness of the shadows, the dark Malik held full power to do as he pleased, causing terror at every turn.

Yugi looked down, expecting to see his blood running down his body, black as night. But in place of the feeling of the dark liquid flowing, he could feel a million tiny pricks at his skin. From the wounds there came an army of crawling insects, fighting to escape the confines of his body. Yugi could now feel them everywhere, crawling beneath his skin, eating at his innards. He dared not scream, for fear they would next come rushing out of his mouth. Just the idea nearly made him vomit.

After getting over his shock, Yugi became aware of the maniacal cackling of the dark Malik, who was clearly getting perhaps as much pleasure from making the Pharaoh's host suffer as he might have gotten from doing the same to the Pharaoh. "What will make you scream?" he murmured.

Yugi did not answer, hoping that his silence would soon bore the dark Malik who held him captive.

"No? Well then, I will just have to find out through _experimentation_ then, won't I?" He dragged the cold metallic object—the Rod, Yugi realized—against Yugi's throat, tearing in it a ragged hole through which the black blood Yugi had first expected poured.

The scream that followed could not be stopped. The blood was boiling, searing through Yugi's fragile flesh, freeing more boiling blood to burn the rest of his body. Yugi looked down at his body, tears of agony seeping from his eyes. All he saw was the black blood oozing out of him, clinging to his exposed muscles and ligaments, searing them before dripping lazily to the ground.

The dark Malik knelt to the ground and ran his nose along the muscles of Yugi's legs, inhaling deeply with a blissful smirk. "You have the most enticing scent," he said, casting his gaze upward for a moment. "Almost good enough to _eat_." He sank his teeth into the cooked flesh of Yugi's leg, marinated in blood.

Yugi could do nothing but watch in silence with growing horror. There was no pain; he was fairly certain his nerves had melted and dripped to the ground. All he had was the knowledge that he was being eaten alive by the psychopathic dark side of a person he now called a friend.

"You're not screaming," the dark Malik observed as he rose lazily to his feet. Despite this, he looked pleased with himself. "It doesn't seem that the Pharaoh will be coming to your rescue." An expression of pure insanity covered his features. "I have no more use for you tonight!" He drove the Rod through the center of Yugi's chest, narrowly missing his victim's heart.

Yugi prayed for a quick release as the Rod was driven through him again and again, until finally he felt his heart burst.

He sat up in bed, panting and drenched in sweat. The pale light of dawn seeped into his window, promising a brighter day than the night behind him. He climbed out of bed and looked in the mirror. He lifted up his pant leg to find that there were no bite marks. He lifted up his nightshirt, but there were no scratch marks. There was nothing amiss with his body…not that there ever was. For all he knew, Yugi was simply having nightmares. And yet he felt that this was surely not the answer. He turned from the mirror and went to his closet, just narrowly missing the apparition of his attacker staring hungrily at him from the glass.

* * *

><p>This is the product of wine + Crosshipping...<p>

Please drop a review!


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